D&D General "I make a perception check."

My description should be enough for the players to understand the options available to them. As for being better at hiding, again, I don’t really see what there is to be better or worse at when it comes to hiding. Maybe the keeping still and quiet part? That should only come up if there’s uncertainty in whether or not they will be found, in which case they will get to add their character’s stealth-related bonuses to the check they will have to make.

Ok. I wouldn’t describe that as stats, but I see what you mean.
here is my question (and I will be vague and general)

if there are choices the player can make that will auto pass at the intended check, and ones that auto fail and ones that would have a higher DC and ones that have a lower DC... and the player honestly out of game told you that they didn't know HOW to do what they want just that the character is good at it, how likely are you to be transparent with the options (as you see them)



now I say as you see them because if I design a room with 5 good hiding places 1 funny hiding place and 3 no one would be dumb enough to hide places... my players will 9 out of 10 times be like I choose the 10th place you didn't think about at all
 

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Exactly. In my view, having to make a check is the worst case scenario because checks can fail and have consequences for failing.
you keep saying this... you do realize auto fail is also an option to most DMs right...

forget "Do I roll, or do I auto do what I want" and think about the guy who wants to calm the queen down with his +17 cha skill and is told to 'just say something' then says he saw a movie on AMC last night were the guy slapped the hystrical woman and tries that on the queen for the DM to say it's a fail... no roll
Your character’s stats help insulate you against the risk of failing and having to suffer those consequences in the unfortunate case where you have no other option but to place your fate in the hands of a fickle d20.
 


you keep saying this... you do realize auto fail is also an option to most DMs right...

forget "Do I roll, or do I auto do what I want" and think about the guy who wants to calm the queen down with his +17 cha skill and is told to 'just say something' then says he saw a movie on AMC last night were the guy slapped the hystrical woman and tries that on the queen for the DM to say it's a fail... no roll

In social situations, different people can say the exact same thing - to completely different results - you know based on their charisma. My work colleague can say things to clients that works get me punched in the face, yet they are, nodding, laughing and agreeing with him.

this is why approach and words generally shouldn't be enough - unless the situation is already so friendly that it doesn't matter (and even then more charisma might help).

the whole point IS the guy with the +17 diplomacy is almost always going to get a better result (in a social situation) then the guy with -1. Even if their approach is identical and the words they use are the same. Anything else seems unrealistic in addition to being unfair to the player who invested in diplomacy.
 

okay to me being immersed is being IN character... but so often your ways seem to me (IMO) break us out of in game logic to instead worry about who OOC has the best chance to do something...

This is an interpretation you are imposing on me. It's not something that I've said.

that is something I am not interested in. I want the in game, the in character to matter more

This is an interesting statement, because you say you want the in game to matter more, and the in character to matter more and that's fine. But if we look at what you actually mean by this in practice it is you want the character sheet to matter more. You want to facilitate direct access to the rules for adjudicating the game without checking the fiction. You don't want the in game to ever get in the way of the player pressing the out of game buttons and get access to his out of game numbers. You're happy with a completely out of character move, "I use diplomacy on it", "Ok, roll the dice." You are prioritizing the game rules over the game fiction, and the character sheet over the character, and not by a little bit on the spectrum but by a lot - a whole lot. And all your explanations defending this come down to, "People were afraid that they might lose."

I don't write transcripts

I don't either. I'm using the term to separate out a portion of the overall table play which includes out of character jokes, rules discussions, and lots of other things that don't advance the story of the game.

yes I love and laugh at order of the stick all the time... but I have never (on purpose) used it as a refrence for how i want my games to play out if you had written them as a book.

I didn't say you had, but your stance on play makes your game read like "Order of the Stick". Rich breaks the 4th wall to be funny and to meta-comment on RPing as a pasttime. So he has characters in world make statements like, "I think I failed a Spot check", because that's funny.

I'm sorry there is nothing about cutting from one scene to another that makes it a parody...

No there isn't, but I didn't say there was. This is sounding like you are setting up another strawman to burn down where you take a simple and reasonable suggestion that was nothing like what I was talking about and then act like that was what I was talking about. An example might be a show like The Orville showing the protagonists pinned down by laser fire, outnumbered and desperate, and a character says, "I don't know how we are going to get out of this one." and then another character says, "Wait, I have a plan", and then we cut from that scene to another one where the characters are back aboard the ship safe and sound saying, "Wow. I thought for sure we were goners there." And another one says, "Man that was some plan you had there." That's a comedic cut. That's parody. And if you use a fast forward/hand wave as deus ex machina to save the bacon of the protagonists because you wrote them into a corner, that works in a comedy. That's at the level of, "Wait, let's get the DVD of the movie and see how we get out of this." If you break the 4th wall with that sort of plot averting short cut in a serious film you'd better be able to explain it later on and be doing literary tricks with telling the story out of order to achieve some well planned effect.

A good example I can think of in a novel where hand waving through the scene almost ruins the novel is Erin Morgenstern's "The Night Circus" This is a novel with a lot of good features - strong characters, beautiful evocative writing, a good setup. But it ultimately for me fails to be a classic because Morgenstern's non-linear timeline mostly serves to avoid having to explain the major plot points of the story. We keep getting references to hugely important story events that change the trajectory of the characters lives, such as "what happened in Prague". But at the end of the story, these events are still off stage and we never do learn what they were and so we never do get scenes that explain why the character's personality, motives, and actions changed. Instead of being shown how and why they change, we end up just being told that they dramatically changed. That is weak writing.

The rule here is similar to the rule in RPGs. You can handwave through a scene if nothing is at stake. In an RPG you don't bother rolling if failure is meaningless. Heck, you might just skip to the chase. If the audience hears a plan that is likely to work and which is boring to get into the details of - "We need to go down to hardware store and pick up a pallet of 2x4's" - you can cut over that scene to a scene where something is at stake - "Ok, new scene. You have the 2x4's". You don't have to show a mundane non-risky detail. But handwaving through a scene where the audience isn't given a reasonable understanding of how you got from A to B and there seems to be a lot of risk is bad writing whether it's in a novel, movie, or an RPG.
 

In social situations, different people can say the exact same thing - to completely different results - you know based on their charisma.
yup that is why (not cha exactly but a social roll) I gave the example of my jedi with cummy stats that made a huge critical success on what was basicly a dirty lymeric as a pick up line... and got the girl

(It was a d6 system where you rolled Xd6 and added together and I rolled 1d6... and got a 6, BUT they rules said if you rolled a 6 you got to reroll and add it... and a hard DC is like 20... and I ended up in the 30's at a table in my college lunch room with the whole table watching once the 1st 6 was rolled)
My work colleague can say things to clients that works get me punched in the face, yet they are, nodding, laughing and agreeing with him.
yeah, in real life Cha is the god stat.
the whole point IS the guy with the +17 diplomacy is almost always going to get a better result (in a social situation) then the guy with -1. Even if their approach is identical and the words they use are the same. Anything else seems unrealistic in addition to being unfair to the player who invested in diplomacy.
this is why we roll no matter what you say.
 


So, something I've noticed in my own games. The more description I give the players, be it a space to explore or an NPC to interact with, the more description I get back from the players.

Me: "You come to a door."
Player: "Check for traps?"

Me: "The corridor widens slightly before a large pair of double doors. The floor rises to the threshold in a shallow ramp of polished stone. The dark oak doors are bound with brass and ornately carved with scenes from the Book of Nolem. The locking mechanism is made of brass shaped like the face of a cherub. It's mouth is open in an "O" as if singing singing praises to the Lords and Ladies; it's eyes look upward to the heavens. The key hole is recessed deeply inside the cherub's mouth."
Player: <Too many things for me to bother trying to write them up here.>

Re. DCs
If I've given the players some decent description (this is not always the case; I can be lazy) then I will adjust DCs according to what players say their characters are doing. Someone who give me good description that works within the narrative will get a bonus, someone who simply says "I roll my skill check" will get the standard DC, and someone who says something that goes against the narrative will get a penalty.

Yes, I know that this leans into "player skill" over "character skill." So to remedy this somewhat I do my best to gently encourage the players to give me more and better description. And I reward efforts made by giving the same bonus. Am I using Pavlovian conditioning on my players? I guess I am. Does this make a bad person? Maybe. Does this lead to a game style more in leaning with my preferences? I hope so.
 

you keep saying this... you do realize auto fail is also an option to most DMs right...
But a failed ability check always has a consequence. Failing to accomplish a goal without an ability check might not.
forget "Do I roll, or do I auto do what I want" and think about the guy who wants to calm the queen down with his +17 cha skill and is told to 'just say something' then says he saw a movie on AMC last night were the guy slapped the hystrical woman and tries that on the queen for the DM to say it's a fail... no roll
See, I would say to that player, “are you sure you want to do that? This could have significant consequences…”
 

This is an interpretation you are imposing on me. It's not something that I've said.
no it is based on everytime I say "my character is better then me and I don't know how to describe it" the answer isn't to help narrate, or to make a check but to make them say SOMETHING even if they and you know what they say will not be as good as what the character would do.
This is an interesting statement, because you say you want the in game to matter more, and the in character to matter more and that's fine.
100% my stance
But if we look at what you actually mean by this in practice it is you want the character sheet to matter more.
I mean I kind of see what you mean... but I don't think of it as the character sheet but the character. The sheet is just the break down for ease of mechanic.
If I were writing a novel (maybe someday) my stealthy character would not hide somewhere stupid unless i meant to play it for laughs.
If I were writing a new animated Netflix original series my charismatic leading man who bargains with devils for his power will not be constantly shown up by the borish not charismatic woodsman every time we start to talk

in a game where the player picks a place to hide and it is someplace the DM thinks is dumb they just don't get a roll
in a game where the 2 players of the 20 cha warlock and 8 cha barbarian happen to have the barbarian player be better at coming up with and talking through arguments and better at making friends... so the DM lets him auto pass since he has 'described something that should work'
You want to facilitate direct access to the rules for adjudicating the game without checking the fiction.
yes and no. I want the fiction first when ever the players are up to it (I keep saying match the players energy) but weather they use fiction or what you call buttons, either way it is a check to see how well they do.
You don't want the in game to ever get in the way of the player pressing the out of game buttons and get access to his out of game numbers. You're happy with a completely out of character move, "I use diplomacy on it", "Ok, roll the dice."
the joke is "Diplomancy" like putting necromancy and diplomacy togather... but yes, if it makes sense to talk and use cha or a cha skill i am fine with that as short hand.

You are prioritizing the game rules over the game fiction, and the character sheet over the character, and not by a little bit on the spectrum but by a lot - a whole lot. And all your explanations defending this come down to, "People were afraid that they might lose."
you say I am prioritizing character sheet over character... but the character sheet IS the representation of the character in our real world. you say I am prioritizing game rules over game fiction... but I would say you prioritize player narration skill over game fiction.
No there isn't, but I didn't say there was.

Oh good gosh no, no, no. The difference between the two is serious story versus parody. If you set up a problem in a book or Netflix TV show with a non-trivial solution and then you hand wave past that, that is super weak writing.

I responded to you saying the difference is between serious and parody
This is sounding like you are setting up another strawman to burn down where you take a simple and reasonable suggestion that was nothing like what I was talking about and then act like that was what I was talking about.
then explain what you meant by
Oh good gosh no, no, no. The difference between the two is serious story versus parody. If you set up a problem in a book or Netflix TV show with a non-trivial solution and then you hand wave past that, that is super weak writing.

The rule here is similar to the rule in RPGs. You can handwave through a scene if nothing is at stake. In an RPG you don't bother rolling if failure is meaningless. Heck, you might just skip to the chase. If the audience hears a plan that is likely to work and which is boring to get into the details of - "We need to go down to hardware store and pick up a pallet of 2x4's" - you can cut over that scene to a scene where something is at stake - "Ok, new scene. You have the 2x4's". You don't have to show a mundane non-risky detail. But handwaving through a scene where the audience isn't given a reasonable understanding of how you got from A to B and there seems to be a lot of risk is bad writing whether it's in a novel, movie, or an RPG.
again if we say "I talk my way into the palace" and my character is KNOWN for being a charismatic fast talker... yeah we can skip that no issue.
 

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